#89: THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

5.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

No, first time

BEST SEQUENCE

The cliff-climbing scene is quite memorable, filmed without any dialogue at all, with only the sounds of the wind howling and the waves crashing in the background. The first action scene, when the heroes' ship is boarded by Nazis, was also a good burst of excitement early in the movie

BEST LINE

Nothing really stands out in my memory. If I picked a line, it would just be for the sake of doing so

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

92%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Bolstered by a cast of memorable stars and an impressive sense of scale, The Guns of Navarone fires with vivid characterization and entertaining spectacle."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers."

THOUGHTS

• The word that kept coming to mind was "stodgy". I liked the concept, a group of soldiers going undercover to travel the length of a Greek island and attack a fortress, and I found the setting very appealing, but I was a little underwhelmed by the plot, the action and the characters
• Gregory Peck really was a marvelous leading man, though. He's handsome and stoic as ever
• The island of Navarone doesn't actually exist, but it's meant to be a Greek island in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey. This provides a setting which is unique to this movie, at least compared to the other war movies I've seen. The heroes climb cliffs and travel through mountains and valleys, they camp out in ancient Greek ruins, there are some great shots of boats sailing through open water with no land around for miles, and I especially liked the shots of German soldiers marching through tiny Greek villages. The setting will be my main takeaway from this movie
• Beyond that, things were just kind of generic. And at the risk of sounding like the grandson from The Princess Bride, I found it kind of silly when Gregory Peck had a kissing scene with a Greek resistance fighter. There was no character or plot reason that I can think of for this movie to have a kissing scene
• I've seen my fair share, but these days, war movies aren't really a genre I actively seek out. We've already had a few on the AFI list, and we're going to have a few more. The Guns of Navarone is fine as a war movie, but for me, that's ultimately all it is. A competent war movie, and I'm glad I've now seen it, but I doubt I'll be coming back to it anytime soon. At the risk of showing my hand, though, I'll point out that the highest-ranked war movie on this list is The Great Escape, at #19, a movie which I love and which transcends the war movie genre, in my opinion (and at this rate, which we'll be talking about in, like, 2 years)
• Finally, I'll leave you with this: when this movie came out, in 1961, the main trio of Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn were 45, 51 and 46, respectively. According to IMDB trivia, for this reason, when it came out the British press nicknamed this movie Elderly Gang Goes Off to War. And I think that might just be the funniest thing I've ever heard

Up next: 12 Angry Men from 1957

MARK REVIEWS THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: BLACK WIDOW

 

• It's finally here! We have a new Marvel movie to review!
• My first Marvel review, of Iron Man, happened in March of 2019. Endgame came out that April (I didn't watch it until 8 months later) and Far From Home came out that July (6 months later for that one). This makes Black Widow an outlier in my Marvel movie reviews - it's the first time I'll be watching and posting about a movie shortly after its release date. For that reason, I'll be more careful about spoilers than usual. Although considering this movie is set after Civil War and before Infinity War, there aren't that many spoilers to be found. Don't worry, guys. Nat survives the events of this film
• More importantly for my viewing experience, thanks to the recent reopening of movie theatres in Toronto, this is the first Marvel movie I've seen on the big screen since Guardians of the Galaxy 2, in 2017, which was 4 years ago and 2 years before I decided to do a full Marvel watch. I've always known that the Marvel movies are best seen in the theatre, and for several of the previous movies, I wished I had taken that opportunity. I'm always going to have positive associations with Black Widow, if only because it represents the beginning of our return to normal after a year and a half of COVID lockdowns. The movie-going experience was still fairly bizarre, there were only 7 people in the whole VIP theatre room, but God did I miss going to the movies. And I missed that popcorn!
• Even when I decided to start watching all the AFI 100 Thrills movies, I knew I'd sprinkle in some more Marvel reviews whenever they came out. I dedicated enough time to getting caught up with the MCU, you can bet that I'll be plopping myself down in a theatre seat for all the movies going forward, as well (next up, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in September)
• But, now I must say, as a movie, Black Widow was fine but not super memorable
• Good to see a solo outing for Scarlett Johansson. She's said that she has no plans to return to the MCU, and of course, given the events of Endgame, that makes sense and necessitated Black Widow being a prequel (midquel? Maybe it's a midquel). And ScarJo was asskicking as ever, especially in the plainclothes fist fight scenes, which were probably my favourite
• Black Widow reminded me a lot of The Winter Soldier in terms of gritty action and serious tone. And I really loved The Winter Soldier! But Black Widow didn't quite have the plot or setpieces to match it
• David Harbour had some fun character moments as Red Guardian, but in the grand scheme of the movie he was pretty inessential
• I loved Florence Pugh in Midsommar and Little Women, but her character in Black Widow just didn't really pop for me. Still looking forward to more from her, though
• And we have another completely forgettable Marvel villain, played by Ray Winstone. And I just realized, Ray Winstone has now bookended my movie-going lockdown events - he was also in Cats as Growltiger, and that was the last movie I saw on the big screen before theatres closed. Yes, I saw Cats in the theatre. Twice, in fact. And it was absolutely bonkers and hilarious and ridiculous and not good, per se, one might even call it awful, but I loved it and everyone should see it. In fact, I can guarantee you I'll be rewatching Cats before I rewatch Black Widow
• When the Marvel Disney+ shows starting coming out, I did think about reviewing them as well, but ultimately I decided I'd rather just stick to movies. More condensed, and more variety. But I'll say, we did watch Wandavision and really liked it a lot, and I fully plan on watching The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki, just haven't gotten around to it yet
• Like I said above, Marvel has me on the hook. I didn't keep up with the movies when they were coming out, but I spent the time getting caught up, and now I'm ready to follow them along on this cinematic ride to see where they take us. But with Black Widow being the first movie of Phase Four, I can't help but wonder how Marvel will manage to recapture the greatness of the Infinity Saga, which sometimes underwhelmed me with its individual parts, but as a whole came to have a big impact on me as a 23-film movie experience. I'm not sitting here with my arms crossed, I'm legitimately excited to see what comes next, but I do have to wonder if a little bit of the magic may have been lost, especially after they lost some momentum, through no fault of their own, due to COVID. But I'm ready to be delighted, Marvel! Hook me in with another lovable group of superheroes! I'm glad we got to have one last adventure for Natasha Romanoff and Scarlett Johansson, but I'm ready to see something you haven't shown me before!

Up next: OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming. The Guns of Navarone, movie #89 on the AFI 100 Thrills list

#90: THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

3

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

No, but I have seen the episode of Pokemon which has the exact same plot

BEST SEQUENCE

When the ship capsizes and life gets flip-turned upside down

BEST LINE

"You see, that's the sign for life and life always matters very much" - one of the characters IMMEDIATELY before dying. Like two seconds before. Meant to be poignant, I thought it was hilarious

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

80%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The Poseidon Adventure exemplifies the disaster film done right, going down smoothly with ratcheting tension and a terrific ensemble to give the peril a distressingly human dimension."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Nine people explore a cruise ship at sea in a manner that turns their whole lives upside down." - Hey, IMDB, this is my blog! Leave the smug, moderately clever remarks to me! 

THOUGHTS

• This movie did absolutely NOTHING for me. I did not enjoy watching a bunch of annoying people overact their way off of this ship
• And the cast was stacked, including five Academy Award-winning actors! But I did not care about a single one of these characters. The worst offenders, though, were Eric Shea as the requisite precocious little kid and Ernest Borgnine as a blustery, argumentative cop whose eyebrows can be used as a flotation device in case of an emergency

• Probably the most appealing character (while still not all that appealing) was Gene Hackman as the reverend who takes charge of the escape attempt. He was also a bit of a fashion trendsetter in his cold shoulder turtleneck

• I grew up watching Leslie Nielsen be silly in a serious way in movies like Airplane! and The Naked Gun, so it was kind of funny to see him in this movie being serious in a serious way as the ship's captain, especially since this is exactly the style of ridiculous disaster movie that Airplane! was directly spoofing
• Some of the practical effects and stunts are good, and the actors did most of them themselves, but other times it just looks like they shake the camera and tell the actors to pretend they're losing their balance
• I'm giving The Poseidon Adventure a 3/10 for some of those aforementioned stunts, but I really was not entertained by this movie one bit. I'd rather watch Titanic. I'd rather watch Airplane!. I'd rather watch that episode of Pokemon I mentioned. If you're keeping score at home, and I pray that you are, this now means that The Poseidon Adventure has the lowest score of any movie I've reviewed, lower even than Robin Hood: Men in Tights. And I stand by that, although I wouldn't be surprised if there are some people out there who hold a nostalgic affection for it

Up next: The first of several WWII movies on this list, The Guns of Navarone from 1961

#91: BRAVEHEART (1995)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, 20 years ago or so

BEST SEQUENCE

All the battle scenes are viscerally exciting and impressive

BEST LINE

"They may take our lives, but they'll never take...our FREEDOM" - William Wallace, rallying the troops

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

78%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Distractingly violent and historically dodgy, Mel Gibson's Braveheart justifies its epic length by delivering enough sweeping action, drama, and romance to match its ambition."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Scottish warrior William Wallace leads his countrymen in a rebellion to free his homeland from the tyranny of King Edward I of England."

THOUGHTS

• Mel Gibson has made statements that are racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and misogynistic. I do not respect or admire him as a person, and I believe that he deserves any consequences that he has faced in his personal life and his career. However, I do think this is an exciting movie, and I think he's pretty good in it
• Braveheart starts out kind of slow, and I got lulled into the sense that it would be duller than it turned out. Once you make it past the first 45 minutes, the action and battle scenes are intense and exciting. Worth acknowledging that 45 minutes is a pretty long time to "make it past," but it is also quite a long movie at just under 3 hours
• Early in these reviews I watched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and I was terribly underwhelmed. I feel like Braveheart is the movie Prince of Thieves was trying to be. And the comparison is apt, since Braveheart is nearly as fantastical in its depiction of history, and that's saying something considering William Wallace actually existed and Robin Hood didn't
• William Wallace was a real person. The Wars of Scottish Independence occurred. Some of these battles kind of happened the way they're depicted in the movie (and some were just completely invented by the filmmakers). And Wallace was captured and executed by King Edward I of England. But so much else about this movie is so wildly inaccurate that it might be best to just see it as a ripping adventure yarn, and not hope to learn much about history
• Amongst the most egregious fallacies: the nickname "Braveheart," historically speaking, did not refer to William Wallace. It referred to Robert the Bruce, a Scottish hero, who is also a character in this movie and is depicted as a semi-villain; and, kind of hilariously, all the Scottish warriors are shown wearing kilts throughout the movie. But the events of this movie happened around the year 1300, predating kilts by a good 200 years at least
• The filmmakers admitted that they did very little research or fact-checking, and they were just trying to make an exciting movie. At that, I think, they succeeded, but I also believe it could have been just as exciting with a little bit more accuracy with regards to how things actually happened
• Also, the scenery is truly stunning and beautiful, and one of the most impressive aspects of the filmmaking. However, the majority of the movie was actually filmed in Ireland
• But if you can get past all of this, the battle and fight scenes are bloody and chaotic and gripping, William Wallace is a charismatic leader, the Scots are easy to root for, and King Edward I is a pretty despicable villain to root against. Apparently when it came out people were unimpressed with Mel Gibson's Scottish accent, but hey, I thought it was pretty good. Miles better than Kevin Costner's accent in Prince of Thieves, anyway
• Finally, when thinking about this movie, it led me to examine why I had a different reaction to this than I did to a movie like Full Metal Jacket, which I found hard to consider thrilling or entertaining. Braveheart and Full Metal Jacket both depict real wars that occurred, and real lives that were lost, so ostensibly, by my own logic, I should also find it hard to be entertained by Braveheart. But I was very entertained, and thrilled, and I don't think I'm alone to have a different reaction to these movies, I just think it deserves acknowledgement. Whether it comes down to a simple difference in time periods, Braveheart taking place hundreds of years ago and Full Metal Jacket only happening dozens of years ago, or the differences in filmmaking styles, I'd be interested to hear other theories about why a movie like Braveheart can be thrilling and exciting whereas one like Full Metal Jacket is more likely to bring one a sense of dread and discomfort as a viewing experience

Up next: Movie #90, The Poseidon Adventure, from 1972. I'm aware of it, but I don't think I've ever seen it